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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Crockpot Taco Chicken

When it comes to dinner there's little easier than a meal in the crockpot. I mean, it does all the work for you. I've posted varieties of this recipe before but I hesitate to call it salsa chicken since we don't use salsa anymore to make it in our house. What we use is taco sauce. So here you have it ... Easy Taco Chicken in the Crockpot.

Or just call it Crockpot Taco Chicken. Honestly, call it whatever you want - just make some - it's delicious.

Sidebar: How does one come up with a "name" for their recipes these days? Everyone seems to make the same sort of thing - you'll see it on Pinterest 100x over - and then you try to share your own, hoping that your recipe, your pictures, your pin might take off like wildfire!

Honestly? I just love this recipe and really wanted to finally share it with some easy to follow images. So yes, it's Pin-worthy now, but it's also really good - so stay with me.

This recipe is so flexible you can pretty much make whatever changes you need to.

The chicken breasts can be fresh or frozen. You can probably make this with tenderloins or thighs, depending on your preference, but this recipe and cooking time are based on using chicken breasts.

Your taco sauce can easily be changed out to salsa, but we like a mild taco sauce. Use the entire jar as it helps keep the chicken from drying out.

If you don't have taco sauce on-hand you can always make your own with the packets of taco seasoning. Add them to some chicken broth and though they won't be of the same consistency they'll work for the flavor.

The corn is the easiest ingredient on the list. It can be canned corn or grab a bag of frozen. You can use white, yellow, niblets, whatever you have on-hand or prefer.

Beans can be fresh, as well - but you'll have to figure out how to cook those on your own. I've never made dry beans into edible ones from scratch. I normally prefer using black beans but in this recipe I used pinto beans because we were out of black. It's a good idea to rinse your canned beans in a colander to get off some of that grime and help reduce the sodium. Or so someone told me once upon a time.

The cream cheese is completely optional, but it will thicken the recipe and give it a really good flavor and consistency. I tend to use neufchâtel cheese as it has less fat and you honestly can't taste the difference in a recipe like this one.

Let this cook for about 5-6 hours, or until the chicken is fork tender and you can shred it with regular utensils. Shred the chicken up into the rest of the ingredients. About a half an hour before serving add the 1/2 block of cream cheese to the crockpot. Be sure to break it up into small chunks to ensure that you're able to stir it easily and it will melt into the recipe.

This is one of the few times you'll be told to stir whatever is in your crockpot.

Again, the cheese is optional, I just like it because it thickens the meal and makes it easier to serve in the tortillas we tend to use.